Store Orders A Different Dress Because The One You Want "Won't Work For Someone Your Size"
Reader Brad says his friend was "shafted" by a bridal store in St. Louis, so she wrote to the local paper about her issue. The paper wrote up her story and is now asking readers to offer their opinion on the issue. Brad's friend, Tia, went to a bridal store to buy a gown for her sister's wedding. She was instructed by the bride to get a dress that was shiny and either black or red. Tia found a gown she liked and ordered it. When she got the gown, she looked at the tag and noticed that it wasn't by the designer that she thought she'd chosen. When she asked the store what was up with the dress, they told her that the store ordered another dress because they thought the one she'd chosen wouldn't "work for somebody of her size." This, of course, made Tia cry.
Now she wants a refund of half of her costs but the store says no. They're offering $75 as compensation, which is not half of the $230.50 she paid for the wrong dress.
On that day of departure, she looked for the tag, found it and noticed something odd. It didn't say Bill Levkoff. It said Eden Bridal. Tia thought that perhaps Eden Bridal was part of the Bill Levkoff line. Maybe Eden Bridal did the larger dresses. So she went to the computer and looked up Eden Bridal. It did not seem to be connected to Bill Levkoff.
Had there been a mistake? Had she gotten the wrong dress?
She rushed to Ultimate Bride. If there had been some kind of a mistake and the seamstress had been given the wrong gown, would there be time to do the alterations on the right gown? She explained to the seamstress that they had been working with the wrong dress. The seamstress went to talk to the store manager. She came back and said, no, this is the dress we ordered for you. The manager didn't think the other one would work for somebody of her size.
Tia started to cry. She took the dress and left.
She told the story to her mom in Iowa. It was humiliating. By the way, she now hated the gown. The sash was long and embroidered. Way too frilly. It wasn't shiny enough. She called the store from Iowa. She spoke to the manager. I want my money back, she said. The store manager said she couldn't do anything because Tia had taken the dress.
When Tia came back to St. Louis, she called the owner of the store, Ann Rafferty. She offered Tia a $25 refund, but overall, the discussion did not go well. Tia then spoke with general manager Richard Craig. That conversation was better, but resulted in the same $25 offer. Tia asked for half her cost back. In all, including shipping and alterations, she had paid $230.50. Craig continued to offer $25.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is asking readers to decide what should happen. What do you think?
OK, jury, you decide the Case of the Wrong Dress [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
(Photo: Getty)
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Comments:
She didn't get what she ordered. Full refund - end of story.
uhh full refund. She got something different then what she ordered.
This girl deserves nothing less than a FULL refund - Bad enough not getting the dress she ordered, but to be given a different one without being told beforehand, and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, they insult her size?!!! Holy moly, this shop better hope she doesn't sue them for emotional distress as well!
This is the kind of story that reaffirms my belief that anyone in anyway affiliated with the Wedding Industrial Complex is a complete know-it-all assface.
Refund plus damages. Are they kidding? What awful people.
Seriously? This kinda stuff happens in real life?
Listen here, store staff- we pay you for things we order, and want. If my clients wants John Denver at their reception (and they did recently) I learn John Denver. Even if I think it's a big mistake. I take pay for what I offer that the client wants.
Full refund and an apology. She didn't get what she ordered and was insulted by the store management.
Full refund. But I'm glad they held out, because now they can have a big steaming pile of bad press to go along with the full refund.
Full refund all the way, she only took the dress in reluctance as she was already being humiliated and ridiculed.
She should get 2/3 of a refund, and 2/3 of a couch. Wait, wrong post.
@Chryss: I was thinking Anne Rafferty can shove it up her ... no-no hole (euphamism thanks to dlisted.com)
Dear Zod, does Rafferty hate other women THAT much - she really has to seek therapy and get a new line of work.
Let me see if I have this right:
Girl orders dress.
Store gives her wrong dress.
Girl accepts wrong dress.
Girl takes wrong dress to seamstress for alterations.
Girl has wrong dress altered, THEN figures out she accepted the wrong dress.
It seems to me that although the store switched her order without her consent, which is unacceptable, she never should have accepted the wrong dress from them in the first place,...half refund sounds perfectly reasonable to me, as it was the fault of both the store and the girl.
chargeback
HALF REFUND since she took it home with her and I guess she should lose weight too. ;)
Anyway - full refund. You should not play with weddings like that. If people CAN be accommodate, then accommodate them. If the dress doesn't come in her size, SAY that and give her other options. This stunt was unnecessary.
I voted for half the refund after I read the full story. This young lady picked up the dress and tried it on for alterations, not noticing it was a different dress. So the dress had to have been very similar to the one she originally ordered, and very similar in price to the one she originally ordered. She only noticed the tag was different, then she wanted a resolution for a dress she had ordered months before and had altered and worn.
The store absolutely should have discussed their concerns about the original dress with her before doing anything, and no one should have insulted her. She proposed a reasonable solution.
I'm glad the owner was involved. Then she can't blame some lackey when no one ever shops there again.
Seriously, NO bride would ever shop there after hearing about this. It's not like bridal stores are even special, from my wife's experience they all order the same crap.
how about this: the store manager changed the dress because tia was black and she didnt think it would look good on her skin tone. oh wait, we're only allowed to be rude to fat people and then claim it's their own fault.
full refund + whatever you think the scenario above would get in a lawsuit. especially since all they had to do was ASK before they changed the order if they thought it would be a problem.
If that is their policy then they need to post a "No Fat Chicks" sighn at the front of the store.
@kaizoku80: Read carefully. The seamstress worked for the store.
That's the deal with menswear. You go in, you pick your suit, the tailor takes your measurements, then you go back in and pick it up after the tailor has done their thing. At the better stores, they'll have you try it on and the tailor makes any minor adjustments needed.
It sounds like that's what happened to Tia. She ordered the dress and they took her measurements. She didn't find out the store had changed dresses until the store's seamstress had already altered the dress. What's she going to do - refuse the dress, and either skip the wedding or show up inappropriately dressed?
Tia's being really nice to offer to pay half - I'm sure she must be young.
I'm an old fart, and if a menswear store pulled a swap on me with a suit like that the day before a business trip... well, yeah, I'd take the suit, what else am I going to wear on the trip? But they'd better have the right new suit when I got back, ready to swap for their used wrong suit, or they'd either land a chargeback or see me in court.
Chargeback.
@ARPRINCE: duh, not quite. The dress wasn't the dress she bought, just because she left with it doesn't mean the store has completed the sale. It's not the item the customer paid for, and they felt the dress was inappropriate they have to give the customer the ultimate choice.
And as far as weight loss is concerned, your comment needs to lose some weight: "HALF REFUND since she took it home with her." There, that looks better on you.
I don't normally advocate going to court to fix a situation that can easily be fixed without going to court, but in this case, since the management cannot give her what she paid for, then she should just file the papers and take it to a judge. Let the store manager get served with papers and show up in court and defend his actions.
@theysaidwhat: I agree It seems like if there were no tag at all, she wouldn't have even realized that it was the wrong dress. She tried it on twice before the alterations began, so if she hated the dress that was the time to speak up. The dress didn't get suddenly more frilly and the sash suddenly embroidered through the course of alterations. Definitely a boneheaded move on the store's part, but I think a half refund is more warranted here than a full refund.
@theysaidwhat: Who would have thought that they were being given a completely different dress. If I were in a situation like that, I'd probably have assumed I was remembering the item of clothing incorrectly. It would never occur to me that the store would ignore my order and substitute their selection for mine.
just lovely.
Email: info@theultimatebride.com
Address: 1512 S. Brentwood Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63144
S. E . Corner of 1 - 6 4 / 4 0 & Brentwood
Telephone: (314) 961.9997
Not only should she get a full refund she should also be financially compensated for her time & energy she's wasted trying to get what shes fully entitled. She should also file a complaint with the BBB and the FTC. Its not up to the manager to decide what she should wear to a wedding if the dress comes in her size then order it plain and simple, its not like they are the fashion police.
She should have checked her dress before she left the store with it.
it is quite generous of her to only ask for half the value of the dress back...
I think she would have better results if she demanded a full refund and threatened a law suit for discriminationa and selling her a different dress than ordered without providing the information.
This is a ridiculous situation. The store should have never ordered a different dress that the woman did not choose, and they did so knowingly! And they insulted her weight! First, they're not doing anyone a favor by insulting their customers, second, they should have consulted with the girl to see whether she could find a dress that fit her better - and that's something that even remains to be seen, because according to a lot of bridal shops, if you're not a size 4, you're imperfect and not deserving of anything you actually spend money on.
And $230 is just too much for a dress and alterations! One of my bridesmaids was just a tad on the large side - no one dared tell her she was bigger, or should not have been wearing x dress. A store is simply to provide a service, not to give opinions.
I did laugh a little bit, though, at the bride's instructions that the dress was to be shiny. Shiny dresses are horrible for wedding photography. Think disco ball. Satin shiny can be elegant, but not so flattering for larger people. Sequins should be banned at all costs.
@theysaidwhat: This is not her fault. This is like saying that people who are fooled by the "Folger's Switch" are responsible for what they got.
She looked at pictures and dresses and chose one. She didn't memorize the picture, nor would anyone with reasonable intelligence believe that a picture of a small-sized dress would look exactly like the picture. The manager even chose a dress knowing it looked very similar to the one she wanted. Her not being an expert in this dress, having not seen it since she ordered it out of a catalog, and not knowing what it would look like after it was altered is a very reasonable argument that she would not have known. It was only until she saw the label that it would be obvious.
I also take issue with the comment in the article:
"You can't have it both ways," said Craig. "You can't say you're not into dresses, and then complain that it's not quite the same dress."
No one should have to be "into" the product they purchase in order to get what they ordered. Imagine if car dealerships did this: "I know you ordered the four-door sedan, but you have 10 kids in your family, so we ordered you a conversion van," or restaurants: "We saw you ordered a double cheeseburger, but brought you out a salad, since it seems like you're about 20 lbs overweight." The store screwed up here, and because they know she's not going to be a repeat customer, they're being jerks. They're only offering a minor sum so she goes away.
Full refund and she should never have taken the dress but forced them to deal with it then and there on the spot.
You know I called the store and spoke with the manager. She was very polite and just took what I had to say (that I have a wedding coming up and that she's lost my business) and said thank you and hung up. I figure if people call and (politely) say that they would never shop at a store which speaks to customers in such a degrading way, the store might try to do some damage control and compensate the poor girl.
The trick to manipulating a business into giving you (or anyone) what you want is to convince them that it's bad for business. Do this WITHOUT being rude, WITHOUT being threatening (I'M GONNA TELL THE WHOLE INTERNETS! gets you nothing) but just informatively. You can even say something like "I think you need to call me (or the customer from x article) and try to make things right in order to get my business back."
So do we think the dress she really wanted wasn't actually available and the store did this rather than lose her business? Or that there's a kickback/higher profit from the Eden Bridal line? Because I am utterly unconvinced that it had anything to do with a taste call.
It isn't up to the store to decide for someone else what they will wear. As long as the customer loves it that is what matters.
I have to wonder if this other dress was considerably cheaper to the store and they pocketed the difference.
Yeah, so I'm a small business owner. When I make a mistake, or screw up royally, or hell, a customer screws up, I make a snap decision: do I want to lose this person's business and if I do (in the case of a disliked customer) how can I do it in a way that offends them the very, very least so they don't tell people about me.
I own a dog boarding service/kennel. When a dog gets sick here, I spring for medications, call in favors from vets et cetera in order to make the clients happy - that way, even though the dog getting sick wasn't my fault (generally) the customer still feels that I take responsibility for all that goes on. The customer knows that a fungus on the dog's nose isn't my fault but just normal kennel stuff, but I give them my spare tube of antifungal stuff anyway because it makes them happy.
ANYTHING to make a customer happy. You never know where a story of your screw up is gonna land. It might even hit Consumerist!
@b612markt: Of course... calling incessantly, insulting, swearing into the phone and just being a jerk is WRONG.
Mods, I was good, I swear!
"I'm sorry, my credit card won't work with a store of your type."
Lecter: So tell me about Miss Bridal Gown. Was she a large girl?
Clarice: Yes.
Lecter: Big through the hips? Roomy?
Clarice: They all were.
@urabl: Full Refund and a written apology from the manager for the abusive rudeness of their original explanation
It's very far in the comments to bother ... but I have to say this lady deserves 2 things.
1: A FULL Refund.
2: A public, and sincere apology from the owner/manager involved.
Poor girl
If a business did this to my wife I would ruin them as much as I could. At that point it is so far beyond a monetary issue.
Don't forget she should only return 2/3 of the dress.
And no argument here, full refund for item not delievered as ordered.
the fact that they refused to give her what she ordered and humilitated her, now that deserves a full refund and a written apology. $25 is a joke. if they treat any of their customers in that manner, i sure as hell will never be a patron.
I decided to do a touch of research so I set out to see how comparable the two dresses are by way of a web site that sells bridesmaids dresses. The article doesn't describe the dress beyond the sash detail, so I chose two dresses from the two different brand lines with a sash, and otherwise the same general construction.
These may not be the dresses in question, but this gives a good example of the higher price that a designer label will command.
The store may still be making a profit with even with their $75 "offer".
Isn't this fraud?
What the...? Ordering a different dress without talking to the customer? Listen, if the manager had called and said (GENTLY), "We have some concerns about ordering this dress...can you come in and we can discuss different options," that would be one thing. But the store arbitrarily decides to order a different dress and then demand that Tia pay for their choice, not hers.
Full refund, thank you very much--the store can take the dress back and choke on it, for all I care.